Taking a cue from Hannibal Lecter, I ask of the modern Christian Right: “What is it, in itself, what is its na-ture? What does it do, this Christian Right?” My answer: It judges. Everything about the Christian Right flows from this. They define their own righteousness not in terms of their own accomplishments, but in opposition to the wrongness of others. The Christian Right is not nearly so sure that they themselves are saved as they are sure that certain others are not saved. It is at least as important to be sure who you should have nothing to do with as who your brethren are. The idea of community consists mainly of marking various peoples as Samaritans with whom one should not associate. The more accurately one judges and identifies those who should be outcast, the purer the company one keeps and the more acceptable the community. Taken to an extreme, this philosophy becomes the fetishization of the idea of victim, which is at its root a framework for identifying, condemning, and ascribing predatory power to those they see as evil. Those who are marked and judged are then portrayed as threatening and willing to do harm. The world is not populated by God’s children, seen as basically good, but by rampaging enemies of the faith that must defeated. Theologically, it is much more important to know the devil than to know the Lord. The devil is systematically assigned to various bad habits, behaviors, attitudes, lifestyles and the Christian Right trains its own to know what they are and avoid them, or at least make a show of doing so, because demonstrating a public revulsion for the evil condemns it more properly than actually avoiding the evil would. In fact, public condemnation of perceived evil is the most cherished value of the Christian Right. The foundation of their theology is to stand in hopeful contrast against a backdrop of declared evil. The mission of the Christian Right is not to found hospitals or to minister to the sick or to visit the imprisoned. Again, the primary function of the Christian Right is to judge. If an activity involves the positive force of unconditional love in action, the Christian Right is nowhere to be seen. But if it involves condemning someone, carrying signs, lobbying for discriminatory laws, they’ll be first in line. This is what they do.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
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Somehow, I doubt these "hypochristians" are very fond of Matthew 7:1-5.
Hold on, I know that one... "Judge not, lest ye be judged!"
Great post! They are one of my favorite targets...and I'm a Catholic. What amazes me about those judgemental bastards is that they get so caught up in spreading 'Jesus' word' that they have lost total sight of the one thing Jesus taught that trumps all of there rhetoric---to love and have compassion for others. Every arguement they have falls on its face if you follow that one rule. I truly believe when they die, and get to the pearly gates God will say "I'm sorry, I got a bunch of good people in here that are somewhat uncomfortable with you coming to the party". But you know, don't want to sound like a holy roller. Liberals can be Christians too!
Wow, well said.
Steal this post I must.
/yoda
i dunno...they might have a point. Puritans were all against the dancing, but now that dancing's tolerated look at all the sex and violence we have! Maybe they were right, dancing leads to evil!
in all seriousness, individuals of the CR are pretty neat people, who do help build hospitals and support the community. How many times have we said "to look away is to allow?" We throw that argument to the German people during the persecution of the Jews. "you looked away, you allowed it, you are partly responsible". And so the CR, whose belief is that some things shouldn't be allowed, doesn't want to let said things happen without a fight, lest they be considered part of it.
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